View full sizeAP file"I just think defensive guys think more team, and don't feel like they invented the game of football," says former linebacker Pat Fitzgerald, who starred and now runs the football program at Northwestern when asked about the predominance of Big Ten coaches with defensive backgrounds. "I've met a lot of offensive guys that think they invented it, and that's OK. It's two sides of the fence. That's what makes it so fun."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State traded a quarterback for a nose guard, and Luke Fickell fits right in with the rest of the Big Ten. Throw these conference coaches into a schoolyard game, and they'd be tackling each other without having anyone who could throw a touchdown pass.

Nine of the 12 Big Ten head coaches were defenders during their playing days, including the new Buckeye boss who is a former Buckeye defensive lineman. A 10th, Penn State's Joe Paterno, played some quarterback at Brown but also set the school record as a cornerback with 14 career interceptions.

That means former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was an outlier as a former college quarterback at Baldwin-Wallace. Even the two former offensive players among the coaches, Purdue's Danny Hope and Indiana's Kevin Wilson, were linemen.

Everyone's past affects how they view the world, but this doesn't mean a bunch of 10-7 defensive struggles are ahead for a Big Ten season that starts Thursday with Wisconsin's game against UNLV. Clearly, though, this is a conference informed by a perspective where the bosses were hitting people, not getting into the end zone. That means they've got to be tougher than coaches who were offensive guys, right?

"I won't go there," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, a former Ohio State safety, said after a pause and a smile.

The SEC is a league where nine of 12 head coaches played offense. Five were quarterbacks, including South Carolina's Heisman-winning Steve Spurrier (at Florida), Georgia's Mark Richt (Miami) and Arkansas' Bobby Petrino (Carroll College, Montana).

The Big Ten's defensive mindset

Ten of the 12 head coaches in the Big Ten this season have backgrounds in defense:

Coach

School

Position

Alma mater

Luke Fickell

Ohio State

NG

Ohio State

Bret Bielema

Wisc.

NG

Iowa

Pat Fitzgerald

N'western

LB

N'western

Kirk Ferentz

Iowa

LB

Conn.

Brady Hoke

Michigan

LB

Ball St.

Jerry Kill

Minnesota

LB

S'eastern

Bo Pellini

Nebraska

S

Ohio State

Mark Dantonio

Michigan St.

S

South Carolina

Ron Zook

Illinois

S

Miami, Ohio

Danny Hope

Purdue

Off. line

Eastern Kentucky

Kevin Wilson

Indiana

Off. line

North Carolina

Joe Paterno

Penn State

QB / DB

Brown

-- Doug Lesmerises

"I just think defensive guys think more team, and don't feel like they invented the game of football," said Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald, a former All-American linebacker at his school. "I've met a lot of offensive guys that think they invented it, and that's OK. It's two sides of the fence. That's what makes it so fun."

Fitzgerald went on to say that of course he's generalizing, and he knows plenty of humble coaches with offensive backgrounds. But the point is taken. While Fickell enters this season admitting he's not going to intrude too much on the offense, he's going through what a lot of Big Ten coaches experienced. Coming up as a defensive player and defensive coach, he's now running the whole show, but admitting his experience lies with preventing touchdowns, not diagramming them.

"No way am I going to say that my expertise is in offense," first-year Michigan coach and former Ball State linebacker Brady Hoke said. "That's why we've got a great offensive staff.

"I was fortunate enough to play linebacker, and I think it helps you in your [defensive] teaching. It helps with your pre-snap reads to the splits on the offensive line to game-planning and looking at what people do."

Not that these head coaches give up on the other side of the ball.

"I do believe I have a good knowledge of the offensive side," said Pelini, a former high school quarterback. "I've never run an offense, but I do believe as you move forward, you have a better balance."

"When I took over as a coach, I was so excited to learn offense, I loved hearing how the offensive coaches were going to attack something," said Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema, a former nose guard at Iowa. "I almost wish I had been on the other side of the ball for a few years before I became a head coach, because you learn the opposite of what you've been thinking all along."

"You evolve, you really do," Fitzgerald said. "I actually enjoy offensive football more now. I used to call it the purest form of communism. But in five years I've been a head coach I've learned so much."

Fifteen years after he made his last tackle for the Buckeyes, Fickell is embarking on that journey, opening himself up to offensive football. But in his heart, like most of his Big Ten peers, he'd rather lower his shoulder and drive somebody into the ground.

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